Tong Lek, the fried fish noodle stall previously in Yummy Cottage food court on Macalister Road has closed and the good news is the owner has shifted the business to a shop house further down the road.

The business is now officially named Tong Lek Eight Cafe. The owner continues serving the fish beehoon in pork broth with deep-fried fish fillet and fish belly, a house specialty.

The first Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Shop in Southeast Asia had its soft opening on the 5th floor of Gurney Paragon Mall, Penang on 9th February 2015. The restaurant originated from Hong Kong has a total of nine outlets, with one awarded with one Michelin star for seven consecutive years.

The a la carte menu offers Cantonese cuisine with a mix of congee, wantun mee combined with barbecue meat and an enormous selection of dim sum.

Miam Miam Penang, the French cum Japanese Restaurant, located in Gurney Paragon Mall, has launched its new menu. The menu with its fresh appearance is broader, and includes selections of Miam Miamliciousness souffle, parfait, French toast, to name a few.

The fried char koay teow and the light noodle dish of koay teow th’ng is a popular hawker food across Penang. For those staying around Hillside in Tanjung Bungah Penang, one best place to try these two dishes is at Ah Soon Char Koay Teow stall.

For this coming Chinese New Year 2015 celebration, delight your family and friends with a hot pot of Chinese New Year Special Phoon Choy served in Hokkien Prawn Mee Soup. This hearty and delicious one pot dish is available at T&T Prawn Mee Shop, located on Lorong Selamat in George Town, Penang.

Together with a friend, we headed to the shop, run by Catherine H.K. Tang and husband Terence B.C. Tiow. The recipe of the soup is handed down from Catherine’s father, Tang Chooi Kee, who happens to managed the famous five foot way hokkien mee stall along Carnarvon Street (beside Star coffee shop).

Kai Curry Bar opened its doors on Jalan Phuah Hin Leong in Penang a few months ago. Set in a double storey house with casual ambiance, the Japanese-inspired curry house, offers a menu spotlighting the comfort fares of Japanese curry, served with either rice or noodle.

Dinner guests will experience dishes at the family-owned cafe, taken care by siblings Visarn Noel and Uppasara Nicole.

Nicole takes care of the front while brother Noel and his friend Shane Chee are the chefs who make what comes out of the kitchen. Both the chefs proceeded with cooking from scratch – including curing ham and bacon.

We had a great night out with some friends on our first time visiting the cafe. To get things started, we shared two salads. The Caesar Salad served topped with grated cheese comes with combinations of lettuce, hardboiled egg, toasted croutons and house-made bacon.

Tucked away in the Hillside area of Tanjung Bungah in Penang is Gusto Cafe. This cafe’s with a cosy vibe is built with open space for light and warmth. On the ground floor is the main dining hall, complete with the kitchen while a second smaller dining area is located on slightly lower ground.

The owner, Jason Selvanayagam runs the community neighbourhood cafe with his wife, serving up homemade breakfast and lunch fare to an eclectic mix of (neighbours) regulars.

For early birds, comforting breakfast staples include sausage, egg, bacon, baked beans and bagel while the kid’s menu offers toast with juice and choices of egg and bacon.

The burgers are available with different filling options, notably the The Pig Out Burger which has pork and melted cheese. One can upgrade one’s choice of burger with extras slices of pork bacon, cheese or egg. The cafe also serves Jalapeno bacon cheese burger.

Penang is a hawker paradise with a huge variety of interesting street food stalls offering plenty of good and reasonably priced Chinese, Malay and Indian cuisine. I revel in the delights of hawker food, sold throughout the market area, neighbourhood stalls and the narrow back alleys of Penang.

Some of the stalls offer sitting areas while others have none, so you may have to eat while standing up – a bit of a challenge. However, it’s an even bigger challenge to decipher what goes into each dish and just where those flavours dancing on your palate stem from. This is where I can help.

Hokkien Mee

What it is: Also known as prawn mee, Hokkien mee is served with choice of either blanched yellow noodles or rice vermicelli, or a combination of both.

Penang is a hawker paradise with a huge variety of interesting street food stalls offering plenty of good and reasonably priced Chinese, Malay and Indian cuisine. I revel in the delights of hawker food, sold throughout the market area, neighbourhood stalls and the narrow back alleys of Penang.

Some of the stalls offer sitting areas while others have none, so you may have to eat while standing up – a bit of a challenge. However, it’s an even bigger challenge to decipher what goes into each dish and just where those flavours dancing on your palate stem from. This is where I can help.

Pan Mee

What it is: Pan Mee is also known as mee hoon kueh in Hokkien. You can have either the dry version or with soup. Pan mee is a type of noodle made of rice flour that is handmade manually on the spot. The prepared small lumps of dough are kept fresh in a tight container, and when the time comes, they’re flattened and cut into strips using a noodle-making machine.

Xiao Fei Yang Steamboat Restaurant (Little Fat Lamb) was buzzing with diners when we visited the place for dinner. The steamboat restaurant which has developed a reputation of offering nice cuts of meat is located along Jalan Tanjung Tokong Penang, a few houses away from Starbucks Drive-Thru.

Raw meats and veggies are cooked in a pot of hot soup. At Xiao Fei Yang, there is the herbal soup (RM23) and hot & spicy Mala soup. You can also opt to have the combination of both, priced at RM25.

Ordering is made easy with the ticking ordering system. We tick our choices of ingredients and in a short while, the pot of soup is set up the table. The Mala broth is hearty and fiery, boiled with lots of herbs, peppercorns, ginger and chillies. The herbal soup flavored with a mixture of Chinese herbs, garlic, longan and kei chee (wolfberries) is especially welcoming.

We could not resist the offer from our friends to track down the crab clay pot rice at Kedai Makanan Jia Hian. We travel over to Simpang Ampat Penang to enjoy the simple pleasure of this fabulous rice dish.

Kedai Makanan Jia Hian is another neighbourhood cze char place. Previously located in the corner house on Taman Merak Jaya, it has since shifted to a shop house in nearby Taman Idaman.

The signature dish is obviously the crab clay pot rice. We could see that most tables have at least a pot or two of this dish.